Capitol Recap

The following offers highlights of the recent legislative
sessions. Precollegiate enrollment figures are based on fall 2003 data
reported by state officials for public elementary and secondary
schools. The figures for precollegiate education spending do not
include federal flow-through funds, unless noted.

Arizona

All-Day Kindergarten
Takes Root in Budget

Democrat

Senate:
13 Democrats
17 Republicans

House:
20 Democrats
39 Republicans

Enrollment:
972,000 (K-12)

When Arizona legislators sent their fiscal 2005 budget to Gov. Janet
Napolitano, she readily signed the bill.

Not only does the plan increase state spending by $1 billion, to
$9.5 billion, it also invests heavily in education, and pays for most
of the major K-12 initiatives the governor laid out at the start of the
legislative session.

The Democratic governor’s plans for improving early child care
and education were ambitious. They included costly proposals, such as
full-day kindergarten.

But regardless of their price tags, such proposals are hard to vote
against. So, the omnibus budget bill includes $25.5 million to begin
phasing in full-day kindergarten. Under the plan, all children in the
state will have that educational opportunity by 2010.

The program will take root in 150 of the state’s poorest
schools starting this coming fall. How and where the program is to be
implemented after that will be debated in a legislative study committee
that will make recommendations to the full legislature next year.

Although it is not funded as part of the education budget, the
omnibus spending plan also includes $24 million for another of Gov.
Napolitano’s priorities: early child care. The budget preserves
child-care subsidies for low-income working families and adds enough
money to halve an 8,000-child waiting list for day care.

—Darcia Harris Bowman

Maryland

Lawmakers Keep Promise
To Raise K-12 School Aid

Despite a tight budget and no new revenue sources, Maryland
lawmakers kept their promise to increase K-12 funding by a record
amount.

Republican

Senate:
33 Democrats
14 Republicans

House:
98 Democrats
43 Republicans

Enrollment:
860,000 (K-12)

The legislature passed a $3.6 billion K-12 budget for fiscal 2005,
up 9 percent from this year. The $326 million increase was the highest
ever, according to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Almost all of the increase will go directly to the state’s 24
school districts. It is the third installment in a six-year effort to
raise precollegiate spending by $1.3 billion. A blue-ribbon panel known
as the Thornton Commission recommended the increases, and the
legislature adopted them in 2002. ( "Md. Schools Get Big Hike in
Funding," April 17, 2002.)

"Without question, the greatest accomplishment [of the session] was
the increased funding," said Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Mr. Ehrlich.
"It benefits every school in every county."

This year’s funding increase was especially difficult to
deliver. Gov. Ehrlich’s plan to raise K-12 money in the
state’s fiscal 2005 budget by allowing slot machines at
horse-racing tracks failed for the second straight year.

Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, is committed to meeting the fourth-year
obligation for school aid even if the Democratic majority in the
legislature balks at his gambling plan, Mr. Fawell said.

Other than the funding news, lawmakers didn’t enact any
significant education laws.

In February, the governor and the legislature considered loans to
cover the operating deficit in the Baltimore city schools. But
negotiations ended when the city decided to finance the loans
itself.

—David J. Hoff

Vermont

New Funding Formula
Kicks In for Schools

With a new way of paying for schools put on the books in last
year’s legislative session, Vermont lawmakers this year quietly
approved a $1.1 billion education budget for fiscal 2005, the first
under the new plan.

The school finance law, which goes into effect July 1, raises the
state’s share of the cost of local schools to about 90 percent.
That proportion is up from the previous level of about 60 percent. As a
result, basic per-pupil state aid increases by 37 percent overall
compared with fiscal 2004, though the actual amount districts will have
available remains roughly the same.

Republican

Senate:
19 Democrats
11 Republicans

House:
69 Democrats
75 Republicans

Enrollment:
99,000 (K-12)

In addition, the law sets a statewide property-tax rate on
commercial and vacation property. Along with a penny increase in the
current 5 cent sales tax, the non-residential rate is expected to bring
in enough money to lower residential-property taxes for many
Vermonters.

The fiscal 2005 budget includes about a 6.5 percent increase in
special education aid to districts, and a slight decrease in the
allocation for the state department of education.

"It was a very quiet year" for fiscal matters, said William Talbott,
the assistant state education commissioner for finance.

In other areas the session, which adjourned May 20, was more
remarkable for education proposals that failed than for those that
passed. Enacted were measures to help school systems quash student
bullying and harassment and to combat childhood obesity.

A bill favored by Gov. Jim Douglas that would have given parents
broad public school choice did not make it out of committee. Another
bill, which would have set statewide standards for public preschool
programs run by private contractors, was defeated because of fears it
would have closed good programs.

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